I got this game at release in May 2015 but neglected to write a review. This is my second playthrough 6 years later in 2021 (the disaster of CDPROJEKT's latest release of Cyberpunk made me want to revisit the game) and I have to say Im having a blast.
Witcher 3 is a massive game in terms of the size of the world and the unsurpassed amount of content. My first run through plus the expansions took me over a year to complete. It is easiest the best open world game ever made and far exceeds the previous witcher 2 in technical scope. Indeed it is the best RPG ever made.
The story follows Geralt, a "Witcher" who is a mercernary for hire to kill monsters. The game has a high fantasy setting in an alternative medieval Europe. The essence of the plot is that Geralt's ward, Princess Cirilla goes missing having been abducted as a child by the "Wild Hunt" (aka Wringraiths in Lord of The Rings), Geralt is on a mission to find her and the main quest involves essentially going from person to person asking her whereabouts (the main quest), taking on monster killing contracts and other jobs (secondary quests) along the way. Many of these quests (especially contracts) are quite generic involving talking to an NPC, using your witcher senses to follow footprints, kill a monster then return to the NPC for a small cash reward. It can get a little monotonous after a while and some variation in this regard would have been better. A lot of these secondary quests and contracts just feel like filler in what is already a massive and very long game.
The graphics are fantastic and still hold up 6 years later against other similar games although the devs have announced there will be a remaster released in late 2021. The level of detail is immense.
Sound and music is also awesome with an epic track, although witcher 2 had a better music score.
The best thing about this game is the awesome story which keeps you wanting to keep coming back for more to see what happens next. It is literally unputdownable. Based on original books there is deep lore and lots of magic, absurdities, funny and shocking moments. That said the story does have some glaring plot holes.
The world is alive and you can simply watch people go about their business. I have never seen this level of detail in a game ever. Even some of the minor details are amazing.
That said it's not all good. Witcher is a console port and while it's better than most ported games it can be frustrating for keyboard and mouse players. Geralt walks at right angles, it is difficult to loot items, walk through doors, go up ladders etc. When walking he often overshoots his objective. I find it annoying that while this is a game set in medieval europe, Geralt and Triss Merrygold have American accents (at a timeframe when America didn't even exist) whereas all other characters have European accents. There is no character creation but Geralt can change his hair and beard style. Combat is also pretty poor, mosty left click hack, slash and roll dodge - there are no real skills to use. The talent skill tree is uninspiring. Also Geralt will sheathe his sword at random ill timed moments, often in the middle of combat which leads to you getting killed and having to play the whole scene over again (This is due to the "C" key being hard coded to sheathe sword - the problem can be addressed with making a number of changes to user.ini files and requires some technical knowledge). There are other issues with the game but these can be resolved by installing mods. There are also a couple of well documented broken secondary quests which can't be completed. I really cannot believe that a game of this depth and complexity has not had these simple technical issues patched by the devs in 6 years. Issues aside, the witcher 3 is a flawed masterpiece.
This game makes Dragon Age Inquisition and Skyrim look pathetic.
Essentially the fantastic story and amazing graphics hold up some frustrating gameplay on PC with it being a console port, however after some hours of gameplay one gets used to these flaws. That said these niggles whilst annoying don't detract from the fact this is ther greatest game ever made.
I play in 4k ultra settings and get 35fps
Graphics 10
Sound 10
Gameplay 9
Story 10
Stability 10
Overall 10
Review Deck:
4k 120Hz 55" Samsung Q95T screen
Ryzen 3600X CPU
EVGA GTX 1080 SC gfx card
MSI B450 Pro Carbon mobo
16gb DDR4 Patriot Viper Ram